Tuesday 23rd March 2010

Much as I am enjoying our 6Music programmes and being part of a double act who can (just about) be broadcast to the nation on a Saturday morning - I've been missing doing our stupid, rude and offensive Collings and Herrin version, where I don't have to bite my tongue if I want to shout out, "Andrew Collins, you stupid, fucking cunt."
I know a few of you have been impatiently waiting for more of the latter and your long wait is over my friends. Podcast 104 is up and running and full of filth and fury. Though to be honest I can never remember much about what we've been talking about even immediately afterwards. Sometimes I think that maybe malign spirits possess me for 66 minutes and 36 seconds, meaning I have little to no memory of anything we talked about. Today this was further complicated by the fact that we recorded podcast 105 (released next Tuesday) immediately afterwards. It all blurs into one. But suffice to say when I woke up this morning I didn't imagine I would end up discussing whether Tony Blair would baulk at genetically modifying babies and collecting their semen in order to mix it into curry that he would then sell from a trestle table.
It was cool to be back with our no-holds barred podcast and all those weeks of pent up expletives meant that this one exploded out of us like the nocturnal emissions of the Pope and was a bit of a belter as a result.
But if that isn't enough for you then remember you can get four more naughty podcasts for just ten pounds from Go Faster Stripe. We've shifted a few in the first couple of days, but given that over 20,000 people have downloaded over 100 podcasts for free I am a little bit disappointed that more of you aren't prepared to pay for some. If all those 20,000 people would give us Â£10 a year then we would be able to give up everything else and just do podcasts!
So pull your fingers out you lazy baby jizzers.
I made the most of my night off and finally got to see Ghost Stories at the Lyric Hammersmith. It's a lot of fun and brilliantly staged and acted and terrified some audience members to a degree that makes me hope nothing really horrible ever happens to them, because they will have nowhere to go. But it builds up suspense and tension very effectively, so even though you know full well something horrible is about to happen it is still a jolt when it inevitably occurs.
I loved it because it was reminiscent of those 70s horror films which contained three disjointed stories that then all linked up in the finale - "Tales That Witness Madness" was always a personal favourite. I don't want to say too much about it, but congratulations to writers Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman (who also stars in the piece and is as good in this as he was in "Dead Set") who have a massive hit on their hands. It's not always the case that you go to the theatre and end up properly entertained, but this show is funny and engaging and clever without being pretentious. You will enjoy it even if you are too cynical and world-weary to scream at the surprises. If you don't jolt in your seat a couple of times then you might be actually dead. And I loved the use of sound and smell to heighten the tension. Go and see it if you can. And don't forget that there are some unmissable nights of comedy coming up in the coming months at this venue too . With more big names to be added to all dates. So book ahead.